Why modern data platforms are a smart choice for Swiss companies

Company data often resembles an untapped treasure that can be transformed into a strategic advantage with the help of modern data platforms. Unlike traditional data architectures, data platforms offer not only speed, flexibility, and scalability but, most importantly, deeper insights into customers and internal processes.

We’ve all heard that data is the new oil. But it’s much less common to hear that even the largest oil fields are useless if you don’t have the right drilling rigs—or more precisely, the right kind of rigs. In fact, the analogy between oil and data isn’t quite accurate. An oil field lies statically beneath the earth for ages. Rigs remain in the same place for years, and the amount of oil steadily declines.

The Volume of Data Is Continuously Growing

Data, on the other hand, behaves very differently: its volume increases daily, sometimes exponentially. And it is spread across many different locations.

So far, data has been collected either centrally or across several key storage locations. In a mid-sized company, each department—like HR, Marketing, or Logistics—typically manages its own data silo. Often, these are applications like CRMs, ERPs, or SharePoint servers, which are usually not interconnected.

For a company to truly leverage its data, every team should be able to access the data they need—including data owned by other departments.

The drilling rigs need to be mobile and usable across departments.

Legacy Data Architectures Lead to Silos and Fragmented Analyses

Historically, the most common data architectures are either fully centralized across the organization or isolated within individual departments. This isn’t necessarily bad in itself.

However, it does carry the risk of data traffic jams—or even data silos. For instance, CRM or ERP systems in Sales or Logistics may accumulate data that is accessible only to the teams that collected it, even though the data could be relevant for the entire organization.

This can be resolved and prevented with the right measures. Still, the risk remains that these bottlenecks or silos go completely unnoticed.

The Data Paradox: Knowing What You Don’t Know?

Another major risk lies in analysis and reporting: these might unknowingly be based on a fragmented data foundation.

After all, how can you verify whether data from different sources has been properly consolidated? Or determine how much of it has actually been used? That’s difficult to assess, especially as data volumes constantly grow and their structure changes within the organization.

Traditional data architectures quickly reach their limits here, and the full potential of available data often goes untapped.

Data Platforms: A New Approach to Data Management

These challenges have led to a new way of thinking: offering data through platforms instead of centralizing it. There are many related concepts, including Data Mesh, Data Fabric, and Data Lakehouse. All of them share the same core principles. Data platforms are:

• …technology-agnostic: The data architecture is designed completely independent of any specific solution.
  
  …scalable: So that the company’s and data’s growth doesn’t become a bottleneck.
  
  …self-service: The largest possible volume of data should be accessible across the organization as needed—no longer locked away in silos that require permission to access.
  

Unlocking Strategic Treasures and Preparing for AI

Naturally, one might ask: if a company already has a functioning system, why change it?

The answer is simple: most companies are sitting on a treasure trove of data but don’t realize it—because they lack the tools to unlock it, or in our earlier metaphor, the right drilling rigs.

Data platforms are exactly that tool.

Organizations that don’t want to completely overhaul their existing systems can adapt them toward a data platform approach to enable smoother data flows. Ultimately, it’s about turning data into a strategic asset, rather than viewing it as a technical burden to be carried around.

If the use of AI is on the horizon, data platforms provide the ideal foundation.

How Datahouse Supports Companies with Data Platforms

Datahouse advises companies on implementing data platforms in order to transform existing company data into a strategic advantage.

Because we are not only data experts but also software developers, we can offer tailored solutions for each organization.

We work with both open-source and proprietary technologies, including solutions from Microsoft.

Datahouse serves clients from sectors such as retail, finance, banking, insurance, real estate, logistics, and the public sector.

In a follow-up article, we’ll explain how Swiss SMEs can benefit from data platforms.